<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>i'll be H₂O if you're K by bringmayflowers</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23781019">i'll be H₂O if you're K</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bringmayflowers/pseuds/bringmayflowers'>bringmayflowers</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, M/M, Yule Ball (Harry Potter)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:07:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,460</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23781019</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bringmayflowers/pseuds/bringmayflowers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean really sucks at Muggle Chemistry. So bad that a Hufflepuff prefect is dragged down with him.<br/>(A lab goes very wrong.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel/Dean Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i'll be H₂O if you're K</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/zigostia/gifts">zigostia</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dean doesn’t really know when it started. He just noticed one day last term, before the summer began, that he happened to gravitate more towards the other.</p>
<p>See, Dean and Castiel were never super close. Sure, they hung around the same social circles, but the entire grade is kind of a large social circle. They never really had anything in common, y’know? There was never really any reason to hang around alone, because they would always be with their respective houses, or if anything their other friends-of-friends would be there.</p>
<p>So Dean doesn’t really know where these <em> Awh you’re so cute </em> and <em> I just want to hug you </em> feelings came from, but he does know that when anyone talks to Castiel now, he gets jealous, tries to eavesdrop, and generally just wants to hug and <em> shield! </em> from any other prospective competitors.</p>
<p>(Yes, it’s selfish. Does Dean really care? No.)</p>
<p>The main catalyst could have been what Sam and Charlie had started discussing at lunch today. It was the third day of the first week of a new term, the year that Hogwarts would be host of the Triwizard Tournament too. Dean, Sam, and Charlie were all sitting together, and normally Dean tunes out.</p>
<p>“Did you hear?” Charlie asks. (To the table, but more to Sam if anyone is being honest.) </p>
<p>Sam ponders for a second, then speaks. “Hear what? Oh, the Castiel news?” </p>
<p>Charlie nods eagerly, takes a bite of her sausages. “Who do you think it could be?”</p>
<p>Dean’s head snaps up, neck cracking at the intensity of it. He winces, rubs at it. “What? Whowhatwho?”</p>
<p>“Oh, now you’re listening to us? Not when I asked for Transfiguration homework help before?”</p>
<p>“Yeah yeah, I’ll help you later. What were you saying about Castiel?”</p>
<p>Charlie shrugs, “His friends were talking about him liking someone. Not sure who it is, but apparently it’s a big deal. I bet it’s Gabriel, that Slytherin he always hangs around with.”</p>
<p>Sam snickers. “If I had to bet on someone, I’d say that other Slytherin. Michael? Or even Anna? I bet Castiel would like her, and she’s a Ravenclaw too; he definitely likes that brainy type. And of course it has to be a big deal! Castiel, the golden boy of Hufflepuff, even awarded prefect this year, perfect grades, liking someone? I bet if his parents heard they’d be finally relieved he isn’t an asexual monk.”</p>
<p>“Who’s an asexual monk?” A tray clatters down on the table and Garth sits down, already digging into his scrambled eggs. “Wait.” He puts up a finger. “Is this the Castiel thing?”</p>
<p>Charlie and Sam both nod, too busy digging into their plates. Dean picks at his food, feigning disinterest but wanting <em> so badly </em> to be able to shake the answer out of someone.</p>
<p>“I bet it’s someone <em> totally </em> unexpected. Like, a kid that quiet must be hiding some dirty secrets, right?” With a wiggle of his eyebrows, Garth’s entire statement is revealed to be an innuendo, a complete contrast to Castiel, the epitome of pure. </p>
<p><em> I bet he’s never even had his first kiss yet</em>, Dean thinks to himself, and turns pink. </p>
<p>Thank goodness that train is stopped when Charlie pushes Garth, and he spits scrambled egg and potato out onto her red robes. She grabs jam off her toast, smears it onto his yellow robes as payback. Sam just sits and quietly stares, a fond smile on his face. Dean tries not to think about this again.</p>
<p>(Until he realizes he’s mulling it over in the dark, right before the darkness of sleep whisks him away. What would he and Castiel be like? Would Castiel even like someone like him?)</p>
<p>-+=+=+-</p>
<p>By the time Friday rolls around, Dean is exhausted. He just wants to curl up in a ball and sleep away all the piles of homework he has already. It is almost the last class of the day, which is also becoming his favourite class of the day: Muggle Chemistry. They added it this year as an elective, even bringing in some muggle professor from Oxford or some other fancy muggle school, already having gone through a short (but traumatizing, Sam heard) orientation on the Wizarding World. Muggle Chemistry was said to be similar to Potions, but no magic allowed. Dean likes Potions class so far.</p>
<p>Dean thought muggle things were interesting. Especially those car-things that they would drive around. For transport, his Muggle Studies teacher last year had taught him. He had seen one in a magazine once, and longed to own one. He knew his pureblood parents would never let him though.</p>
<p>But the second, and possibly more important reason this last class is his favourite is because of a blond, blue-eyed, yellow robe-clad reason. See, this class the Gryffindors had with the Hufflepuffs.</p>
<p>He realizes he’s about to be late and runs in the room, sits just in time. Mr. Thomas, the muggle professor, starts teaching.</p>
<p>“Today I’m introducing you to your lab partner! I have split the class into pairs of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and these will not be changed except in special circumstances.” He turns to the class, everyone looking bored except Dean, who is excited to get to know a fellow student, and possibly make a new friend. He supposes this is similar to Potions after all.</p>
<p>Mr. Thomas started calling out names, each pair making awkward eye contact around the room. Dean had completely forgot Castiel was in his class until—</p>
<p>“Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak.”</p>
<p>Dean freezes. His eyes and Castiel’s meet, and Dean looks away.</p>
<p>
  <em> My crush is not going to get any better, is it? </em>
</p>
<p>Thankfully, Mr. Thomas doesn’t make them get into their pairs yet. He spends the rest of the class teaching basics, like the elements, solutions, and whatnot. By the time class ends, Dean can finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing that he has the weekend to “get over it” before their class Monday, which Mr. Thomas has assured will be spent with their lab partners.</p>
<p>(He knows he won’t really get over it. But a man can dream, can’t he?)</p>
<p>When Monday rolls around, Dean is fully prepared to get over it. He has steeled himself, his walls built, even gave himself a pep talk in the mirror this morning. But nothing has prepared him for this.</p>
<p>Because Castiel has <em> glasses</em>.</p>
<p>Cute, little, wire-rimmed ones that suit him perfectly. </p>
<p>Dean was not ready for this.</p>
<p>-+=+=+-</p>
<p>The first term flies by, filled with Quidditch games and the excitement of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students arriving. After Harry’s name gets picked, the whole school erupts, too busy to focus on anything else but the Tournament.</p>
<p>Dean’s crush simmers for weeks, especially in Muggle Chemistry. All he can think of are cheesy chemistry pickup lines to tell Castiel, but he keeps flashing back to that Wednesday first week of school, hearing about Castiel’s crush. </p>
<p>Of course it’s old news by now, the Tournament much more exciting than any silly old crush. But Dean’s feelings still simmer, and near Christmas break almost comes to a full boil.</p>
<p>Mr. Thomas assigns a formal lab, meant to demonstrate how the organization of the Periodic Table works. They have to put 6 elements in water and write observations of the reactions.</p>
<p>Dean is excited; he had never seen real reactions before. By the time the two get to potassium, they are the fastest in the class, and Dean can barely contain his excitement. Mr. Thomas hands them a portion of potassium on a paper towel, and with a warning of “Don’t touch it with your hands! Only tweezers!” they were off.</p>
<p>Castiel is starting to look a lil pink, but Dean can only see him through his foggy goggles.</p>
<p>“Are you ok?” Asking him, just to be sure.</p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Castiel waves him off. </p>
<p>Dean shrugs. Maybe it was just the reactions they’ve been seeing? Castiel was quite startled by the last one, when the sodium dropped in the water created some hissing and he almost forgot to cover with the wire gauze.</p>
<p>Dean places the potassium carefully on the lab bench, looking for the tweezers as Castiel dumps out the old water, washes the beaker, and refills it. </p>
<p>“You’re a copper-tellurium alloy.” Dean hears. He whips his head around, looking for the owner of those words. Everyone is concentrating on their own work, so Dean just thinks he’s slowly going crazy. Maybe those fumes he accidentally breathed in were bad for him?</p>
<p>But Castiel is ready to go, waiting for Dean to drop the potassium in.</p>
<p>(Honestly, Castiel looks kind of nauseous. But Dean is not one to pry, and he <em> really </em> wants to see this reaction.)</p>
<p>As he lifts the wire gauze with one hand, tweezers with potassium, Castiel spits out, “Dean, you wanna go to the Yule Ball with me? It’s on Christmas Eve, and since we’re fifth years we’re allowed. And, uuuhhhh, I’d enjoy it more if you went with me.”</p>
<p>Dean’s jaw goes slack, turning to Castiel. But that isn’t the only thing that goes slack.</p>
<p>The potassium falls in the water, and bursts with a loud pop, creating a flame that seemingly engulfs the beaker.</p>
<p>-+=+=+-</p>
<p>Dean feels guilty.</p>
<p>They end up in the headmaster’s office, waiting outside while he spoke to Mr. Thomas.</p>
<p>They were not going to get an A. He could feel it. He broke a beaker and could’ve caused injuries to someone. Thankfully no one was hurt, but on the first, formal, official lab of this class, he had caused Castiel, perfect, straight-A-student to get a below-A.</p>
<p>He felt really bad.</p>
<p>(He even spots little dots of the reaction, proof of his mess-up, on Castiel’s prefect badge. The shiny metal taunts him, and he has to resist from sticking his tongue out at an inanimate object.)</p>
<p>But this was all just stalling. Dean still hadn’t processed what Castiel had asked him.</p>
<p>“Y-Yes.” Dean finally managed to stutter out.</p>
<p>Castiel was anxious, fingers clutching the hem of his yellow robes and his sleeves nervously. </p>
<p>“Yes what?”</p>
<p>“Yes, I’ll,” Dean trails off, suddenly feeling shy. “I’ll go to the Yule Ball with you.”</p>
<p>Castiel brightens up, “You will? Really? Seriously?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. And we can,” Dean turns pink and twiddles his thumbs, unable to meet Castiel’s shiny blue eyes. (He has never twiddled his thumbs before.) “We could go to Hogsmeade this weekend? If you wanted to.”</p>
<p>“Sure! Sure, sure.” Both sink back in their chairs, too shy to meet the other’s eye.</p>
<p>Castiel suddenly sits up, voice unnaturally enthusiastic considering he likely may get an F on this assignment. “I have one condition though.” Dean swivels to listen.</p>
<p>Castiel sticks out his pinky. “I’m willing to be H₂O, if you’re K.” </p>
<p>Dean pauses for a moment, then breaks out in a smile. “Of course.” and loops his pinky around his.</p>
<p>They both can’t stop smiling, even when Mr. Thomas comes out and announces that, after deliberation with Headmaster Dumbledore, he has no choice but to give both a C on the execution portion of this assignment.</p>
<p>(Both are moderately worried about what happened to the students while they were in the office, especially after the two nearly skip away after the news.)</p>
<p>-+=+=+-</p>
<p>“Hey Cas,” Albert calls into his room.</p>
<p>“Yeah? What’s up?” Castiel straightens his dark blue dress robes, looking into the mirror to make sure he looks presentable.</p>
<p>“A guy named Dean is waiting outside for you.” As an afterthought, he adds, “He has some cool green dress robes on.”</p>
<p>“OK, thanks!” Albert walks down the hall, footsteps fading behind him.</p>
<p>Dean shuffles nervously outside. He had never really been near the kitchens, and it took some navigating to find the Hufflepuff common room entrance.</p>
<p>Castiel steps out, and Dean forgets everything. He had even planned some cheesy pickup line, but he forgets all of it when he sees Castiel.</p>
<p>Castiel turns pink. “Do I look OK?” He spins, oddly reminiscent of those cheesy muggle teenage movies Charlie used to force him and Sam to watch.</p>
<p>He breathes out a shaky, “You look great, Cas.” </p>
<p>Castiel beams, pulls at his arm. “Stop staring. It’s making me shy.” Pink tinge covers his face, and he links Dean’s arm into his.</p>
<p>“Oh, K, you’re too cute.” Dean flicks his nose, and they walk to the Great Hall together.</p>
<p>(Castiel realizes that night that Dean is dark on the outside but shiny on the inside as his nickname suggests.)</p>
<p>-+=+=+-</p>
<p>Alternate Scene: </p>
<p>Castiel points down at the laminated Periodic Table they were given. “What’s a copper-tellurium alloy?”</p>
<p>“What? I don’t know, Mr. Thomas never taught us.” Dean was never the super-smart type, but he listened in class.</p>
<p>Castiel looked exasperated. “No, you’re a copper-tellurium alloy.”</p>
<p>“No I’m not.” Dean smiles proudly; he had learned this joke recently from Sam. “I’m Dean.”</p>
<p>To his surprise, Castiel doesn’t laugh. He rolls his eyes, mutters, “You’re so dense.”</p>
<p>“Hey!” Dean protests as Castiel stands, cleaning up his worksheets. “I don’t even know how dense I am, how could you?” Dean humphs and sits back down to work on his “Types of Reactions” worksheet.</p>
<p>(Castiel walks up to Mr. Thomas, asks to go to the restroom. On his way out, he sneaks a glance at Dean, stil huffily doing his rumpled worksheet. He has to hide a smile.)</p>
<p>-+=+=+-</p>
<p>Alternate Scene 2: </p>
<p>Castiel strips off his hat and mittens, too hot to be inside with them on. He waits at the base of Gryffindor Tower where he said he’d meet Dean to go to Hogsmeade on their date. He observes the paintings outside.</p>
<p>(Was it a date?)</p>
<p>Castiel hears a loud bang from inside, with a string of shouted profanities. The painting swings open and Dean emerges, rubbing his knee.</p>
<p>“Sorry,” Dean sends him a lopsided grin. “I tripped coming down the stairs.”</p>
<p>Castiel laughs. “I heard.”</p>
<p>Dean gestures towards the doors leading out. “Should we go?”</p>
<p>As soon as they get outside, Castiel pulls his hat around his ears and tugs his mittens on. In the snowy wonderland outside, all the colours seem more saturated. Or maybe it was just Dean.</p>
<p>(Dean suddenly realizes Castiel’s eyes are just as blue as his nickname would suggest.)</p>
<p>Dean, in a surge of confidence, grabs Castiel’s mittened hand with his own.</p>
<p>“Race you there?” Dean’s eyes twinkle, eyes ask permission. Castiel only tightens his grip. It was answer enough</p>
<p>“I’ll definitely beat you.” And the two set off on the snowy path, flurries of snow whipping around them.</p>
<p>(The pinks that cover their cheeks are not just from the chill outside.)</p>
<p>After he got home, if anyone ever asked, Dean would deny anything and blame it on ghosts.</p>
<p>(But can ghosts write “first date with Cas!!” on his calendar?)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>the first working title was “You Neutralize Me” but I didn’t have experience with a neutralization experiment so I flipped through my lab book and found another cool one instead, hence the K + H₂O plotline was born. hope you liked it &amp; happy birthday!!</p></blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23853814">Copper and Tellurium</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/zigostia/pseuds/zigostia">zigostia</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
</body>
</html>